Today, business websites need more than just good content and images to compete. Obtaining an edge in the market means applying particular web design features in your site that help generate more traffic and promote visibility. What are these features? Consider the following.
Social Share and Follow Buttons
When you feature useful content on your website, you should be able to share it. Enter social share and follow buttons into the equation. You can situate them on top or below your content so that a user can readily click on them and share your content with everyone in their social network. Meanwhile, follow buttons allow them to stay updated with any new, useful content you post.
When your content is more greatly shared, you can expect more traffic to your site via social media. Not only does your site gain more visibility, but your brand garners more recognition in the market.
When inserting your share buttons, be sure to include one for various social media channels. Popular ones include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+.
Blogs
Increasingly, businesses are recognizing how important a blog can be for gaining customers. Blogs are proven to be essential for increasing website traffic.
In fact, according to a HubSpot study, business-to-business (B2B) companies who blog more than 11 times per month achieve three times more traffic than those who only blog around once a month. On the other hand, business-to-consumer (B2C) companies who blogged more than 11 times per month achieved four times more leads than those blogging four to five times each month.
These findings clearly show that posting blogs regularly can produce positive results for your site and, therefore, your business. They generate more traffic and develop a following that can be converted to sales. All you need to do is make sure that your content stays fresh, captivating, and relevant to your industry, service or product.
Call-To-Action
If your website content is already capable of encouraging conversions, it’s time to work on closing the deal. This is where calls-to-action come into play. When done right, they can help to significantly increase your traffic. Moreover, they can also convert your traffic into an engaged audience (i.e., a following) that subsequently bolsters your brand recognition.
A call-to-action has to be persuasive and clear. It should indicate whether the visitor can contact you, subscribe with you, or purchase your product. For services, you will probably need a call-to-action that compels customers to contact you. For retail products, you can use a “buy now” call-to-action if you are already facilitating online purchases.
At the same time, your call-to-action should be relatively easy to find. For instance, a “buy now” call-to-action should be placed on every product page you post in order to expedite a customer’s purchase.
All these features can help improve your website’s performance. Together, they can generate more traffic and acquire more visitors. Because of this, you can also expect your website’s conversions to increase in short order.
Sources:
How Often Should Companies Blog? [New Benchmark Data], blog.hubspot.com
10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog, smallbiztrends.com
Capture Traffic and Increase Engagement with the Right Call to Action, smallbusinessbonfire.com
50 Must-Have Features for Small-Business Websites (Infographic), entrepreneur.com